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I think a 10x programmer is someone whose efforts increase profits by 10x. Careful ;-). I think that falls into the same trap drKarl's critiquing. Someon

I think a 10x programmer is someone whose efforts increase profits by 10x. Careful ;-). I think that falls into the same trap drKarl's critiquing. Someone spewing unnecessary lines of code can jack up their line count and bill more hours, thereby increasing profits. They aren't making complex problems disappear.

1123581321 10y ago
If you're in a billable hours environment, you can't be 10x as profitable by billing more hours. You need a higher billing rate (that is actually paid by clients). This is hard to get and keep if you are inefficient.
- caminante 10y ago
  I agree that pulling it off requires help. That said, I've seen it happen where folks turn a (should be) 1 day task into a 10 day project. That's 10x more profitable. To be fair to the parent comment, I think he's getting at the super programmers that crack problems others can't. This capability provides competitive advantages. Maybe I'm talking about the other side of the table and did a poor job at that. Sorry!
  - 1123581321 10y ago
    Sure, I understand the gist of what you're saying (and what the parent comment was saying.) But the example doesn't work. Programmers at a consultancy/agency are probably billing 20-40 hours no matter what. So if someone spends 80 hours on an 8 hour project, that just means they didn't work on other projects. This impacts cashflow. Additionally, an inflated bill may be challenged and marked down. So, there's no way for a programmer to be 10x more profitable unless they had nothing else to do otherwise. Now, a company can be 10x more profitable if they hire enough programmers so that they have the capacity to inflate every project. ;) To be a 10x programmer at a consultancy, you need a combination of a high billing rate and long hours, but the easiest way is to implement a productized service that is billed by value/fixed price instead of hourly. For example, I know someone whose company was paid $81,000 for him to build an application, but he made a lot more for them charging about $40,000 to re-implement the same thing over and over for other customers. He didn't hit 10x, but he contributed mid six figure revenue in a year whereas the $81,000 was paid over 18 months. Obviously, he couldn't have done this if he was inflating his time.

1123581321 10y ago

If you're in a billable hours environment, you can't be 10x as profitable by billing more hours. You need a higher billing rate (that is actually paid by clients). This is hard to get and keep if you are inefficient.

caminante 10y ago
I agree that pulling it off requires help. That said, I've seen it happen where folks turn a (should be) 1 day task into a 10 day project. That's 10x more profitable. To be fair to the parent comment, I think he's getting at the super programmers that crack problems others can't. This capability provides competitive advantages. Maybe I'm talking about the other side of the table and did a poor job at that. Sorry!
- 1123581321 10y ago
  Sure, I understand the gist of what you're saying (and what the parent comment was saying.) But the example doesn't work. Programmers at a consultancy/agency are probably billing 20-40 hours no matter what. So if someone spends 80 hours on an 8 hour project, that just means they didn't work on other projects. This impacts cashflow. Additionally, an inflated bill may be challenged and marked down. So, there's no way for a programmer to be 10x more profitable unless they had nothing else to do otherwise. Now, a company can be 10x more profitable if they hire enough programmers so that they have the capacity to inflate every project. ;) To be a 10x programmer at a consultancy, you need a combination of a high billing rate and long hours, but the easiest way is to implement a productized service that is billed by value/fixed price instead of hourly. For example, I know someone whose company was paid $81,000 for him to build an application, but he made a lot more for them charging about $40,000 to re-implement the same thing over and over for other customers. He didn't hit 10x, but he contributed mid six figure revenue in a year whereas the $81,000 was paid over 18 months. Obviously, he couldn't have done this if he was inflating his time.